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Orbit Links for May 23 2008

The Orbit Team
May 23, 2008

Another weekly round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors that we’ve found (or have been pointed in the direction of) out there on T’Internet:

The sad news that Robert Asprin has passed away has come as a shock to everyone here at Orbit.
Marie Brennan has been visiting the UK recently, and blogged a diary of her travels and adventures – everything from navigating London to meeting the Orbit crew, to living off supermarket microwave dinners – in eight installments, starting here.
Michael Cobley (whose Orbit debut will be appearing early in 2009) was extremely impressed with Ian McDonald’s Brasyl.
Laurell K Hamilton will be on the radio next week, as a guest of The John Carney Show and KMOX AM Radio.
Charlie Huston is on the spot over at Fantasy Book Spot. He’s also posted a piece of micro-fiction on his own blog: ‘Pachuco Dave wants to dance’, as well as the maps for his next Joe Pitt novel, Every Last Drop.
Glenda Larke was impressed with a Deathray magazine review of The Shadow of Tyr.
Ken MacLeod is pleased to report that his story ‘The Vorkuta Event’ is appearing in new Cthulu / Singularity themed short fiction anthology The Cthulian Singularity.
Lilith Saintcrow is offering her US-based readers a chance to win an ARC of her new novel, Night Shift.

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

YouTube Action: Orbit authors reading at Alt.Fiction

The Orbit Team
May 23, 2008

A number of Orbit’s UK-based authors put in an appearance at Derby’s 2008 Alt.Fiction day back in April (see our earlier report) and we promised you some video coverage from the day.

Here then, for your amusement, edification and general entertainment, are a selection of book readings by Orbit authors Philip Palmer, Brian Ruckley, Charles Stross and Mike Carey. Admittedly, the sound quality isn’t always the best – the rooms were a bit echoey and the microphone a little small – so you may have to turn the volume up a tad. And Sam requests that you don’t say anything mean about her camera-work; tables weren’t always available and knees don’t always make the best camera-mounts…

(more…)

Orbit Links for May 16 2008

The Orbit Team
May 16, 2008

Another weekly round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors that we’ve found (or have been pointed in the direction of) out there on T’Internet:

Iain [M] Banks was interviewed by CNN during the Lincoln Book Festival recently.
And in the midst of a huge update, writer Paul Cornell mentions that Iain has seen the script of his radio adaptation of ‘The State of the Art’ and has declared himself pleased.
Kate Elliott talks about the importance of researching believable social structures as part of the process of world-building, over at her LiveJournal.
Jo Graham reveals that she’s working on two more historical novels set in the ancient world (as is her rather superb debut, Black Ships…)
…and Jo has also posted a short background story explaining the origins of one of the supporting characters in Black Ships [warning: possible spoilers!]
Laurell K. Hamilton has posted a new podcast in which she answers a dozen questions put to her by fans via her message board.
Charlie Huston has posted his outline, no-particular-order recommended reading list by way of explaining the influences behind his current vamp-noir series.
From Robert Buettner we learn that there’s a subtle difference between finishing a book and actually completing a book.
The Book Swede is running an email sweepstake to win a copy of The Host by Stephenie Meyer… not sure what the closing date is, but you’d be best off getting your entry in quick!
Philip Palmer is delighted to report that he’ll be going to the Cannes Film Festival this year. Hopefully he’ll be able to blog a few snaps of anything sf-nal he encounters while he’s out there…
Jeff Somers has blogged about his recent experiences guesting on the Joey Reynolds radio show.
Charles Stross walks us through a few recent developments in the Fermi Paradox and then with his next breath goes on to explain just why your Internet experience might sometimes seem so slow. Is there anything this man can’t explain?

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

Curled Up with Marie Brennan’s ‘Midnight Never Come’

The Orbit Team
May 16, 2008

There’s a new review of Midnight Never Come [UK / US], Marie Brennan‘s new novel of Elizabethan intrigue and fae power-politics, over at Curled Up With a Good Book.

Reviewer Mervi Hamalainen was particularly taken by the variety and depth of the often chillingly cruel fae characters in the novel:

“Midnight Never Come returns the fairies to their roots: terrifying, alien, yet captivating at the same time. Queen Invidiana is cold and cruel, and every English fae is scrambling desperately to stay on her good side. The mortal pets of the fae who have been changed by their stay among the fairies are sad and frightening figures not allowed to even keep their own names.”

Read the full review over at www.curledup.com.

Jeff Somers, Rescued by Nerds

Alex Lencicki
May 14, 2008

rescue me, nerd! The new blog (with the awesome name) Rescued By Nerds interviewed Jeff Somers about the star of his novels, Avery Cates:

I’ve created a character who kills people, who physically assaults people when annoyed, who has stepped over the bodies of friends in order to save himself—albeit, perhaps, regretfully. Then I went ahead and made him kind of fun and charming. It feels good on some primitive level to then smack Avery in the head with a lead pipe. It feels like the Literary Lead Pipe of Justice.

Visit the nerds for the full interview.

There’s also a new messageboard for any citizens of Old New York who aren’t feeling like themselves lately. You can find that here (at least until the SSF takes it down).

Press Release: Orbit announces plans to expand in the US and UK

The Orbit Team
May 9, 2008

Following its successful launch in the US in 2007, and a record year for the imprint in the UK, Orbit announces its intention to expand both lists. In the US, Orbit is going to double the size of the list over the next 3 years, taking its title output to 70-80 titles per year by 2011. In the UK, where Orbit is already the biggest SFF imprint, it will increase the size of the list by approximately 10% each year over the next three years. (more…)

Orbit Links for May 09 2008

The Orbit Team
May 9, 2008

Welcome to our latest quick-fire round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors:

Comicbookresources.com has posted a lengthy interview with Mike Carey on the subject of his involvement in the Coalition Comix project; a collaboration between Mike, Virgin Comics and a number of invited MySpace fans.
Jo Graham reveals the answer to the problem of finding the time to write a novel whilst holding down a full-time career: stop cleaning the house (temporarily!)
Charlie Huston has posted a link to a video of his recent interview for Swedish arts programme Kobra [the intro and questions are in Swedish, but the answers are in English…]
Glenda Larke compares the falling number of readers in the US with the rising number of published titles and asks who’s going to read all those books?
Ken MacLeod was interviewed by Alex Fitch on the evening of the Arthur C. Clarke Awards, for Sci-Fi-London’s ‘Reality Check’ podcast, along with Richard Morgan and Stephen Baxter. [sent in by Joe Gordon]
The ‘Fantasy Book Critic’ blog reveals that a recent Stephenie Meyer email sweepstake was, without a shadow a of a doubt, their most popular competition to-date, with no fewer than 6,919 entrants…
Lilith Saintcrow points us in the direction of a new Dante Valentine LiveJournal fan community.
YourMomsBasement.com’s ‘Rescued by Nerds’ blog features Jeff Somers‘ brand new Avery Cates novel, The Digital Plague in their Weekly Picks for May 6th: “noirish post-cyberpunk in the vein of Richard Morgan or Jon Courtenay Grimwood…”
Charles Stross discusses the ‘bang-per-buck’ requirements involved in crafting longer works of fiction, particularly series fiction.
In a recent blog post on YA sf/f (that’s sparked another round of full-throated blogoshpere debate), John Scalzi highlights Scott Westerfeld as one of the leading authors on the YA bookshelves.

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

Win a signed copy of Pamela Freeman’s ‘Blood Ties’

The Orbit Team
May 8, 2008

We’ve teamed up with Chris, The Book Swede for this one: another incredibly simple-to-enter email sweepstake, with a copy of Blood Ties [UK / US] – the first part of Pamela Freeman’s Castings Trilogy – up for grabs by one lucky winner.

The book is out now in the US but won’t be be published next month in the UK. So if you’re a UK reader then this is a great chance to get your hands on an early copy… signed by the author, no less! And the Book Swede has also reviewed the novel, concluding: “Blood Ties is an excellent book, fun, clever, and well written, with distinctive characterisations, and I will definitely be looking forward to the next book in the series!”

Full entry terms and conditions are available over on the Book Swede’s blog. Good luck!

‘Midnight Never Come’: four-star SFX review

The Orbit Team
May 2, 2008

The UK’s biggest sci-fi magazine, SFX, has posted a four-star review of Midnight Never Come [UK / US], the new novel by Marie Brennan, out now from Orbit UK, and published next month by Orbit US.

The book, which is set towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, impressed reviewer Eddie Robson with its mix of an authentic Elizabethan atmopshere and darker, fae elements: “…firmly rooted in real history, set in a convincingly-constructed Elizabethan England, but with a secret faerie court existing beneath London. Its ruler, Invidiana, is a cruel capricious sort, whose subjects live in dread of her schemes and whims.”

Eddie also enjoyed Midnight Never Come‘s highly-intriguing plot: “…refreshingly for this genre, [it’s] a political thriller, with conspiracies, spies and shady machinations … The novel starts slowly, concentrating first on world-building and putting pieces on the board, but it keeps you hooked until the plot really kicks in.”

Midnight Never Come is out now in the UK and will be published next month in the US. To read the full review, pick up a copy of the June 2008 edition of SFX Magazine.

Where Do All Those Villains Come From?

Alex Lencicki
May 2, 2008

Karen Miller - Empress (UK) Anyone who’s read EMPRESS – or any of the early reviews of the novel – will know that it’s a book with a very unsympathetic central character (and that there aren’t a lot of hugs to go around at the end.)

Over at Grasping for the Wind, John Ottinger talks to Karen about how the book upends the expectations of epic fantasy:

GFTW: Although Hekat is a sympathetic character at the beginning of the novel, we have come to dislike her very much by the end. How were you able to write a character that rather than having an upward spiral toward a “happily ever after” instead moved on a downward spiral filled with selfishness and hate?”

Read Karen’s responses here.

You can read the first chapter of EMPRESS here.

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